Snow Bunny
by slow-butter
Summary: Zeke and Luther go skiing for the weekend, but things turn bad when they get lost, Luther hurts his ankle and Zeke gets hypothermia.


Zeke awoke in a strange bed in a strange, freezing, room. He blinked a minute, then heard snoring from somewhere behind him. He sat up and saw Luther sleeping in a matching bed on the other side of the room. Oh, right. Their families had decided to go on a ski trip togethersomewhere in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

After glancing at his clock, he tossed his pillow at Luther's sleeping head. The red-head jerked his head up, looking around groggily. "Was goin' on?" he asked.

"'S 9 o'clock. We're supposed to meet upstairs to leave for the Resort at 9:30."

"Right, right." Luther said, rubbing his eyes. They got up, got dressed and headed upstairs for a quick breakfast before hitting the slopes.

Shortly after dinner at the diner on the top of the mountain, the boys decided to take an extended break from skiing and build a snow fort.

While Zeke was setting up the base of the fort, Luther was gathering small branches to serve as supports for the ceiling. He found a decent sized branch that was tall enough to reach a decent ceiling height, had enough branches to hold up most of the roof by itself, and was certainly sturdy enough to do the job. As he was trying to get it dislodged from the mound of snow that had covered it in the who-knows-how-long it'd been there, he saw a snow bunny about 30 yards to his left, just through the trees.

"Hey, Z!" he whispered in the direction of the fort's foundation, not that Zeke could hear him. "I found a cute little bunny." As he spoke, the bunny was spooked, and started hopping deeper into the woods. Luther made to go after it, being as quiet as he could so as not to scare it further.

Zeke stood from where he was packing the snow in the last 'brick' of the base of the fort and looked over to where Luther was supposed to be getting limbs. His eyes narrowed when he found that his friend was no longer in sight. "Luther?" He called after him, walking that direction, listening for any sound. "Luther!" A little bit louder. He noticed Luther's footprints around a large branch that was recently moved, then the prints turned and headed into an open patch into the woods. Zeke sighed, wishing he didn't think Luther'd gone into the woods by himself, but knew better. After several minutes of walking literally in Luther's footprints, he found his friend crouching in front of a tree, apparently talking to it.

"LUTHER!" Zeke shouted, in final exasperation.

The other boy jumped, and Zeke saw a flash of white run off in the opposite direction and disappear amongst the thicker foliage. "What're you doing?" Zeke asked, irritated, "We have a fort to build."

"But it was the bunny, it was so cute, I had to pet it." Luther said, standing.

"Well, let's just head back. Come on." Zeke said, starting to walk in the opposite direction from where he came.

"Dude, slopes are this way." Luther said, pointing in the correct direction.

Zeke paused and looked back, then back in the direction he was headed, momentarily confused. "No, I'm pretty sure it's this way." He said confidently, heading in a completely new direction.

Luther hesitated, glancing at the footprints that had clearly come from the direction he was pointing, but turned and followed Zeke nonetheless. Just as he was about to suggest turning around -again- they heard a loud crash followed by low rumbling. Luther grabbed Zeke's arm as they turned to look at each other, then the direction of the noise. A large drift of snow from well up the mountain appeared to have shifted and was hurtling down the mountain taking out trees and whatever else was in its way with it. An avalanche.

Luther grabbed Zeke's arm and began pulling him, running as quickly as he could.

"Luther!" Zeke shouted over the noise, "Where are we going?"

"I saw a cave somewhere this way. We can stay in there until the snow's gone." Luther shouted back, not breaking his pace.

By the time they could see the cave, the falling snow was closer than either would have like. It had already demolished the trees where they were standing when it started and was getting closer every second.

Luther continued forward without looking back knowing it would only slow him down, Zeke, however, couldn't help himself from gauging just how close the snow was every couple of seconds. Which turned out to be a good thing, as he noticed the very large rock coming straight towards them just ahead of the snow.

"Luther?" He said, not quite loud enough to be heard. And there was the opening of the cave, just a few short feet away. But it wasn't close enough, because the rock was closer, and moving much faster.

"LUTHER!" he got his attention, causing the redhead to look back and see the rock just in time to grab his darker friend and literally throw him into the cave, then cry out in pain as the rock hit him square in the leg. He fell with the impact and could barely feel himself being dragged into the cave just as the river of snow went over his feet.

"Luther? Bro? Are you with me?" Zeke's voice came into focus over the ridiculous throbbing in his leg.

"M'here." He answered, keeping his eyes clinched shut.

"What happened? Where are you hurt?"

"Leg. Hit by the rock. Not broken." Luther answered, accurately. As a skater, he'd taken his number of hits and by now was practically an expert on whether or not something was broken.

"Thank goodness." Zeke said as Luther finally opened his eyes, only to find that he could barely see in the dim light.

"Why's it so dark?" He asked as Zeke helped him sit up against the wall.

"The avalanche. Snow's piled up in front of the cave entrance." Zeke answered, setting to untying Luther's left shoe.

"Great." Luther sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the hard, damp wall.

"I'm going to take your shoe off just to see how bad it is, ok?" Zeke said, pulling at the tongue of Luther's boot to loosen it.

Luther grimaced, braced himself, and nodded. Zeke slowly and carefully pulled the boot off. Despite his caution, it still hurt like mess and Luther nearly made his lip bleed as hard as he was biting it to keep from yelling.

"Ooh, bro. That's a nice sprain. S'already swollen. And I think it's already turning purple, but I can't really see in this light." Zeke said, gently feeling it to make sure it wasn't broken.

"Nnnngh, even better." Luther muttered around clenched teeth. He heard some shuffling, then opened his eyes as he heard what sounded like fabric tearing.

"Z, what're you doing? It's like, ten below freezing out here." Luther said as he watched Zeke tear one of the sleeves off of his winter jacket.

"Exactly. You have to have something more covering your foot than a sock, or you'll get frostbite. And it needs to be wrapped." Zeke said, lifting Luther's leg from just below the knee and beginning to wrap his swollen ankle in the sleeve.

"Dude, you're going to freeze." Luther said, even as he started shivering himself.

"I'll be fine." Zeke said, standing. "I'm going to get some snow to put around your ankle, see if it'll bring the swelling down."

Luther sighed and nodded, drawing his healthy leg up to his chest to conserve warmth. Zeke came back with his other jacket sleeve dripping, snow apparently crammed inside like an ice pack. He then unwrapped the first sleeve, rewrapped the leg in the ice sleeve, then folded the first sleeve and put it under the foot for 'leverage'.

"Well," Zeke said, sitting next to his injured friend, "the snow doesn't seem too difficult to dig through. Loosely packed and all. I figure it should take much more than a couple hours to clear enough for us to get out of here."

"I don't know how much use I'll be." Luther said, trying to push himself up.

"Dude, I got this." Zeke said, putting a hand on Luther's shoulder and pushing him back down.

"You can't dig us out by yourself. Especially with next to no jacket." Luther protested.

"I'll be fine. Just trust me, alright?" Zeke stood back up and took off what was left of his jacket, tossing it at Luther.

"Bro, no. You're going to need this if you're digging through the snow." Luther said, holding it back out to him.

"Nah, I'm going to be working up a sweat in a few minutes and it'll just slow me down." And with that, Zeke set to work digging through the snow wall, depositing chunks of ice on the opposite side of the cave.

Within 5 minutes, Zeke was soaked through both his sweatshirt and thermal undershirt. His fingers were numb, along with the rest of him, and he was getting nowhere fast and losing energy on top of that. He sighed and sat heavily back down next to Luther, panting slightly.

"Ok." He said, resigned, "Maybe it'll take a little longer than I thought. But we should be fine," he added, seeing the concern on Luther's face. "People always go to search after an avalanche. I'm sure they'll be here in a few hours."

As Zeke was finishing his sentence, he started shivering even worse than before, the adrenaline having worn off and the wet sweatshirt starting to freeze.

"Dude, you're not going to survive a few hours if you keep those wet clothes on." Luther said, pulling off Zeke's destroyed jacket and leaning over to help his friend remove his frozen garments. Luckily, Zeke was still wearing his snow pants, so they effectively stayed dry and didn't need to be removed. Just his sweater, undershirt, and gloves, leaving him bare-chested and bare handed.

Luther removed his own jacket, then gave his own sweatshirt to Zeke, and practically forced him to put his torn jacket back on, saying that while it wouldn't keep his arms warm, it would at least keep the rest of him warm. Zeke had to admit, it was better than nothing.

Both boys shivering now, they huddled together to conserve warmth and started talking about all the warm things they were going to do when they got back to the cabin: sit in the hot tub, roast marshmallows, eat soup, sleep under nice warm blankets… until they could tell it had turned dark through the slight opening at the top of the mouth of the cave, just high enough that neither could reach. Luther drifted off to sleep, and left a still shivering Zeke to contemplate how they would get out.

Luther'd been sleeping for nearly an hour (or so Luther's pocket watch indicated) and Zeke was getting worried. He'd already taken the snow off of his injured friend's ankle and noted that the swelling had, unfortunately, increased. Zeke sighed, rewrapping it in the dry sleeve and tossing the one dripping with icy water to the other side of the cave. It was already midnight, and Zeke didn't really expect anyone to show up until tomorrow morning, but he didn't want to worry Luther any more than he already was.

He sighed and leaned his head against the cave wall, shivering. Closing his eyes, he attempted to fall asleep like Luther had. But then again, Luther had been known to fall asleep in the most uncomfortable places, while Zeke had a hard time falling asleep even in his own bed. After a little over an hour of trying to find a comfortable position that was still close enough to Luther to share body heat and failing, Zeke opened his eyes and instead tried to think of how he could expedite their rescue.

Maybe… maybe he could dig through the night, in 5-10 minute intervals, and they could be properly dug out by tomorrow morning and even if no one found them, they'd be that much closer to being back in the warm cabin. Zeke stood, putting on his still damp gloves and began digging again, intent on going as long as he could before taking a break.

After about 30 minutes of off and on digging, Zeke was thoroughly frozen, drenched in freezing (literally) water and exhausted. His fingers had just gone from stabbing pain to stiff and numb. He could hardly pull his gloves off as difficult to move as they were. He removed the sweater he'd borrowed from Luther, which was just as wet and frozen as his own sweatshirt, and pulled the sleeveless jacket back on, zipping it up and pulling his freezing arms inside for warmth, sitting back down next to Luther's head.

His shuddering must have awoken Luther, though, because he sat up, confused.

"What's going on? Where are we?" He asked, rubbing face with gloved hands.

"S-still in th-the cave." Zeke answered, shivers getting more violent as the minutes passed.

Luther looked around as though attempting to confirm this, though he couldn't really see with it being nearly pitch black in the cave. He picked up the watch he'd set out and pressed the light button, seeing that it was a little after three in the morning. Shivering, he scooted closer to Zeke. When their arms met, he was surprised at just how bad Zeke was shivering.

"You alright?" He asked. "You're shivering real bad…"

"F-f-fine." Zeke answered, moving in as close as he possibly could.

"Did you trying digging us out again?" Luther asked, squinting at the opening of the cave. The moon lit just enough to show that the silhouette of the snow was actually quite smaller than before.

"S-some. Got ar-around h-halfway th-through." Zeke answered, sounded both proud and exhausted.

"Are you still wearing that wet sweater?" Luther asked, sitting upright and attempting to grab Zeke's arm.

"N-no. Took't off." Zeke said, worrying Luther as his words started to run together.

"Are you just in that half of a jacket, then?" Luther said, eyes widening in worry.

"Y-y-yeah. G-got m'arms tuck-tucked in, though."

"Z, man, you're going to freeze to death. Here." He pulled his gloves off, then coaxed Zeke's frozen arms out of his jacket and put the gloves on his hands, which he was already certain were frostbitten. Then he took his jacket off and helped Zeke put it on, despite his fumbling protests.

"Luth, no." He murmured, words coming even slower. "Look, m'not ev'n c'ld n'ymore." He started pushing the jacket off as though to prove his point. Luther paused, placing a hand on Zeke's arm. He wasn't shivering anymore. Maybe he was warming up…

"Look, Z, just keep the jacket. I'll be fine for a little while, alright." Luther said, laying the jacket over Zeke, who had quit protesting. Actually, he'd quit moving altogether.

"Z? Zeke?" Luther said, nudging his friend. Zeke merely rolled his head from one side to the other, apparently asleep. Luther didn't know a lot about the cold or hypothermia, especially living on a warm beach his whole life, but he did remember hearing that falling asleep was not good.

"Zeke, c'mon, ya gotta stay awake, alright. Gotta keep moving, alright?" He lightly slapped his barely conscious friend's cheeks, trying to get him to wake up.

"Luth, st'p. M'sleepy." he murmured.

"I know you are, but you have to stay awake. Just trust me. You gotta stand up, alright?" Luther said, putting one of Zeke's arms over his shoulder and pulling him into a standing position. As he set his weight on his forgotten hurt ankle, he yelped and stumbled, Zeke's extra weight causing them both to fall. Hearing Luther yell and the crash, luckily, woke Zeke up, just a little.

"Luther?" He slurred, "Y'alright? Wha's happenin'?"

"M'alright. Stood on my hurt leg." He said through clinched teeth. "C'mon, ya gotta help me walk, alright?"

"Aright." Zeke said, still obviously confused. Luther pulled Zeke up, ignoring his own pain at the moment in lieu of keeping his friend awake. Alive.

Luther shook the depressing thoughts from his head and took a deep breath. "Alright, Zeke. Can you help me walk to the back of the cave?" He asked, hoping that making Zeke believe that he needed the help getting there would motivate him to walk more than the constant 'you need to move' would. Apparently it worked. He felt Zeke nod, then they slowly, very slowly, made their way to the back of the cave, until they touched the wall. The cave itself was not very big at all. Maybe 15-20 yards long and 5-10 yards wide.

As soon as Zeke got them to the back of the cave, Luther told him that he needed something from the front of the cave. In Zeke's befuddled mind, he didn't think to question him. Just did as he was told. Which Luther might have enjoyed in any other situation, but all things considered, made him even more worried.

They walked up and down and around the cave for nearly an hour before Luther foot could no longer take the pressure and he was shivering too bad himself to continue. Zeke seemed to be pretty aware at this point, and was even starting to shiver again.

"L-Luther? Why do we n-need to keep walking b-back and forth? And is-isn't your foot hurt-ting?" Zeke finally asked after Luther asked him to go to the front of the cave for the umpteenth time.

"Y-you were f-falling asleep. T-too cold. H-had to warm y-you up. W-we can st-stop now." He said, leaning a little more of his weigh on his friend and less on his foot. They sat back down against the wall and Luther groaned as he stretched his leg out.

"Dude, w-where's your jacket?" Zeke asked, noticing that Luther was just in a thin long sleeve shirt.

"Y-you're w-wearing it." He answered, gesturing vaguely at Zeke.

Zeke looked down and only just noticed the extra jacket and gloves he was wearing. "Why am I w-wearing your jacket?" He asked, setting to unwrapping Luther's ankle.

"L-like I s-said. T-too cold. Had to w-warm you up."

"I think y-you need it now, m-more than me." Zeke pulled the jacket off and put it around Luther, shivering twice as hard now that the warmth was gone. But he still had his part of a jacket, and that kept his core warmer than nothing, so he'd be fine. For now. But his main concern was checking Luther's ankle. It was swollen worse than before, and even in the faint moonlight Zeke could see that it'd taken on a rather nasty purplish-blue color. He sighed and put Luther's sock back on and rewrapped the ankle. He checked the time once again (4:18) before shoving his arms back inside what was left of his jacket and sitting heavily against his best friend.

After nearly fifteen minutes of silence, in which Zeke was finally starting to drift off, Luther spoke quietly, "Hey, Zeke?"

"Yeah?" He scooted a little closer, drawing warmth.

"M'sorry."

"S-sorry? About what?" He opened his eyes and glanced sideways at Luther.

"'Bout getting' us lost out here an' trapped in this cave. An' getting' hurt so you had to tear your jacket an' do all the work an' freeze an' stuff."

Zeke smiled. Luther was clearly half asleep. "S'okay." Zeke said. "Get s-some sleep."

And with that, Luther did. Zeke, however, had started to shiver worse again. The sleeveless jacket was certainly not as warmth containing as Zeke had hoped. Or pretended. And he could slowly feel the heat leave his body.

"Alright! There's a cave over here!" Luther woke to someone shouting in the distance. He opened his eyes and looked around. Still in the cave. Still dark. Not quite as dark though, the sun must be rising. Wait. Shouting? That meant people. And people meant rescue. And Warmth. He turned to wake Zeke up, panicking a little when he saw how pale his friend was, yet his lips were blue. Crud.

"Zeke, Zeke, don't do this, bro. Y'gotta wake up, c'mon." Luther repeated, shaking his friend. The most he got was a half moan and a head turn. Frantic, Luther stood, ignoring the shooting pain from his leg and limped to the opening of the cave. Zeke had managed to dig the snow down to a level that Luther, as tall as he was, could just see over the top. What he saw sent warmth through his body. Three men were out there, and they were heading towards the cave.

"Hey!" Luther shouted out of the opening. "Over here! Hurry!" He began digging at the snow.

When he saw that one of the men (did he look familiar?) noticed him and was running his direction, he turned back to Zeke, trying to wake him up again.

"Zeke, come on, man, you gotta wake up. There're people here. We're rescued. But you gotta wake up, ok?"

Zeke's eyes opened a fraction and he looked unfocused at Luther.

"That's it, come on. We're about to be home." Luther said, trying to motivate Zeke to get up. "But I need you to wake up first. You gotta help us get out of here, right?"

Zeke looked like he was trying to nod, trying to say something, but couldn't. Luther pulled him into a sitting position just as the familiar man started digging away at the snow with a shovel.

"Hey!" Luther shouted towards him. "Is there a blanket you have that you could drop down real fast? My friend here is freezing."

"Hey, Ed? You got a blanket in yer backpack? Aright, well this kid needs it in here." The familiar voice shouted. In less than a few minutes, Luther had Zeke wrapped up tight and the men had the snow 2/3rds out of the way, just enough for them to climb in and help get the boys out. As the first guy slipped in, Luther realized it was actually Steve, former owner of the Pawn Shop (went by the name Sleazy Steve) turned Swami (Swami Steve).

"Well, well, well. Lookie who we have here. Didn't expect to see you boys all the way out here."

"Look, Steve, we don't really have time for 'nice to see ya's, so if you could just help us out of here…" Luther said, indicating Zeke failing condition.

"Alright. Ain't gotta get yer undies in a wad. Geoff's bringin' the snowmobile over, so we'll have yer outta here in no time. How'd yew two fellers end up in the bear cave, anyhow?" Steve said, obviously not in too big a hurry.

"We don't have time - wait. Did you say…_bear cave_?" Luther asked, looking around as though the bear was in the cave with them the whole night.

"Well, sure. A cave like this's gotta be home to a grizzly." Steve said, looking around the cave as well.

"What-whatever. Can you just help me get Zeke out of here? We need to get back to the cabin and get him warmed up." Luther said, putting one arm around Zeke's shoulder and bracing the other against the wall of the cave. Steve sort of grabbed Zeke's arm on the other side, and with some coaxing from Luther, Zeke was, more or less, vertical. He leaned his entire weight into Luther, who leaned most of his and Zeke's weight on the his arm against the cave wall and together the three of them managed to get to the entrance where the man Steve called 'Ed' was waiting to help pull them up. The got Zeke out first, who was nearly passed out again, then Luther followed, and Steve behind him.

On their way back to the cabin, Steve's buddy Geoff asked if the boys needed to see a doctor or go to a hospital, but considering the nearest hospital around was over an hour away by car and all they had was a snowmobile, Luther opted to just go back to their cabin where Zeke could warm up and they could deal with his ankle later.

It was a twenty minute ride back to the cabin, during which Steve explained that he'd decided to start hunting bears to make a little extra money as the swami/ice cream business wasn't exactly working out so well and it was shear luck that they happened to be on this mountain in Colorado. Once they got back to the cabin, Luther thanked them and the guys went on their way while Luther turned his full attention to Zeke.

He wrapped him in a heated blanket and sat him on the couch in front of the fire, then took his temperature. As he waited for the thermometer to sound, he noted with slight relief that Zeke was starting to shiver. His temperature was getting back up to normal at least. 93.0 degrees Fahrenheit. Well, it wasn't good, but it could be worse.

He limped into the kitchen and returned a couple minutes later with a cup of hot chocolate. He set it on the table and sat down, pulling Zeke into a sitting position, encouraging him to stay awake and drink the warm beverage.

Zeke's eyes fluttered about halfway open, and he attempted to focus on what Luther was saying.

"…gotta drink this, alright? S'warm. It'll make you feel better."

Zeke nodded, or at least he tried to. His head sort of bobbled and Luther took it as an "ok". Wriggling his hands free of the blanket, he slowly became frustrated by how long it took to do, he wrapped his numb fingers around the cup. He was shaking so badly, though, that the presumably hot liquid spilled out over his fingers until Luther grabbed the cup, steadying it. It took Zeke a full minute to register that Luther'd put the cup down, and was mildly surprised to notice that it was half empty.

"Alright, Z, do you think you can stand and walk around a bit? We gotta get you warmed up, ok?" Luther said, wrapping one arm around Zeke's blanketed shoulders and the other grabbing his arm.

Zeke shivered almost violently and allowed himself to be pulled upright. Movement was still slow for Zeke. It took him several seconds to get his leg to move, but after about fifteen minutes of walking back and forth across the den, he was finally able to think a little more clearly and his movements weren't quite as sluggish.

"L'ther." Zeke said at last, "M'cold. 'N tired." He leaned into Luther, resting his head on his shoulder.

"Alright, let's sit back down." Luther said, guiding Zeke back to the couch. "I'm gonna take your temperature, then you can finish off that hot chocolate, ok?"

Zeke nodded and snuggled further into the blanket as Luther slipped the thermometer under his tongue again. His shivers were starting to lessen, and while he was feeling more aware, he was still super sleepy.

The thermometer beeped, and Zeke pulled it out of his mouth, reading the numbers. "96.9." He read aloud. "Can I get some sleep now?"

Luther studied him for a moment before realizing that Zeke _had_ only had maybe two hours of sleep last night. He was sleepy himself, and he'd managed to get much more rest. "Yeah, just stay on the couch, alright. I'll move to the chair." He said, standing. He suddenly winced, though, and collapsed back on the couch, bending forward and clutching his ankle.

"Luth? What's wrong?" Zeke asked, bending to see what was the matter. He noticed Luther's left shoe and sock were missing and his leg was swollen and wrapped. "That's right, you hurt your ankle. When were you able to wrap it?" Zeke asked as Luther straightened back up, a pained expression still on his face.

"After you finished the hot chocolate." He answered, popping open a bottle of pain medicine and downing two, dry.

Zeke nodded, slumping sideways, eyes drifting shut, when he suddenly realized, "Wait. You walked back and forth through this cabin for like… an hour. Didn't that hurt?"

Luther looked at him funny for a minute, then shook his head. "Not as bad as it could have." He said simply, then wrapped himself in a blanket and turned on the television.

"'Not as bad as it could have'?" Zeke repeated, confused. Luther just turned the channel, and Zeke soon fell asleep.

Three days later, Zeke and Luther were back home after their ordeal. Zeke was still weak from the hypothermia, but was mostly recovered, while Luther's parents forced him to see Dr. Ricardo about his ankle. Dr. Ricardo merely confirmed that it was badly sprained and said the Luther was to be on crutches for at least two weeks and keep his foot elevated while resting.

Meanwhile, back at the mountain, the little bunny Luther was talking to popped its head out of its little bunny hole, sniffing around. It hopped peacefully through the woods as though nothing had ever even happened.


End file.
